The Bird with Two Heads

There was a bird named Bharunda, who had two heads on a single body. They shared hunger, flight, and the long arithmetic of being one.

One evening the first head found a nectar-fruit, rare as luck. He ate, and the whole bird brightened.

Second headYou did not pass it. You did not even turn. Am I a guest on my own neck?

First headThe stomach is common. What I swallow, you keep. Do not make two of a feast.

Spite is a fruit that looks like justice. Days later the second head found a poison-berry and ate it with ceremony, so the insult would have a witness.

Second headNow we will see whose throat is loyal.

The bird staggered, then fell, as bodies do when their arguments become chemical. Two heads, one grave. Division does not stay in the mouth. It travels down.